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Splits, divisions complicate Hariga port talks
* Eastern oil terminals targeted by other protests
* Weak Tripoli government struggles to impose demands
TOBRUK,
Libya, March 5 (Reuters) - If anyone understands the deep divisions
over how to resolve the blockade of Libya's eastern Hariga oil port, it
is the family of local mayor Faraj Yassin.
Protesters shuttered
the 110,000-barrel-per-day port last summer to pressure a government
struggling to impose order three years after Muammar Gaddafi's demise.
The
dispute is one of many involving oil facilities of the OPEC country
that have contributed to a cut in petroleum output to 230,000 bpd from
1.4 million bpd in July. Three other ports in the east have also stopped
exporting.
For Yassin, the shutdown brings trouble, cutting off
vital state revenues and eroding the budget just when the government
needs all the help it can get in Libya's stuttering transition to
democracy.
But for his brother-in-law, Mansour al-Salhin, the
protest is a justified battle against a central government that he feels
has taken oil revenues at the expense of his hometown Tobruk and
Libya's east.
The Hariga conflict highlights the chaos in the
North African oil producer since the fall of Gaddafi, and the
complications for its fragile government in overcoming protests holding
its vital oil industry hostage.
Already battling to end separate
protests at three key eastern ports nearby, Libya's government has been
trying to negotiate a deal to overcome the blockade at Hariga and revive
falling oil revenues vital for public spending.
But talks have
collapsed after the protest camp fractured into rival groups with
different demands. The question of whether oil should flow or not is
dividing families, protest leaders and oil workers in the city near the
Egyptian border.
Tobruk is dominated by tribes vying over a bigger slice of the vast oil wealth and regional power.
Town
council head Yassin agrees with the demands for more regional authority
and development, but opposes pressuring for those rights by halting oil
exports.
"We are not happy that the port is closed," he said,
sitting in his office in a luxury hotel near the port. "This has a
negative impact on all Libyans."
Yassin has been trying to
negotiate an end of the protest and even went with Prime Minister Ali
Zeidan live on television in October to announce Hariga would resume its
work.
But his deal was killed by tribesmen who sidelined a
moderate leader to team up with former militia leader Ibrahim Jathran,
who have seized the three other eastern ports.
Jathran wants a
greater oil share and more local autonomy, difficult demands to deliver
for a weak government. But his Tobruk ally is tougher, demanding an end
to the government and the interim parliament, known as the General
National Congress.
"We want the government and General National Congress to go," said Salhin, a protest leader.
Some
locals dismiss him as unpopular, but Salhin, who is married to Yassin's
sister, draws support from his dominant Al-Abidat tribe. He walks
around with his son, dressed in military uniform, as bodyguard.
"Seventy
percent of the oil comes from the east. We want our share for
Cyrenaica," said Salhin, referring to the historical name of Libya's
east. "I want our rights for Cyrenaica."
When asked whether talks with Tripoli might succeed he said: "The government has not responded to our demands."
TANKERS BLOCKADED
Jathran's
troops in the other eastern ports -- Zueitina, Es Sider and Ras Lanuf
-- have also been in indirect negotiations with Zeidan's government to
end their protest. Their self-appointed eastern region prime minister
said earlier this year a deal was close, but there is no sign of one
yet.
Zeidan has repeatedly warned he may use force to end those
blockades, which are cutting off 600,000 bpd of oil export capacity. But
with no real army at his command, his government is unlikely for the
moment to deliver on those threats.
Jathran -- a former oil
facilities guard commander -- defected with thousands of his troops to
take over the three ports now under his control. But he has been unable
to deliver on threats he will sell oil independently of Tripoli.
At
Hariga, though, the military strength of the protesters is less clear.
But it does not take much to threaten international oil tankers
approaching Hariga.
Unlike the other seized eastern ports where
former oil guards block gates there are no armed protesters at Hariga.
Oil workers still go to work though there is little to do.
The two
export jetties, now inhabited by cormorants, are located at the end of a
natural bay -- any docking tanker could be easily shot at by trucks
mounted with anti-aircraft guns from the opposite coast. Such gun trucks
are commonly used by militia brigades in lawless parts of Libya.
"There
is no tanker going from here," Rajab Abdelrasol, the terminal manager.
"We cannot do anything with this political problem."
Local
military commanders dismiss Zeidan's threats to clear blocked ports by
force, even if they themselves oppose the protest to halt oil exports.
"We
can't prevent people from blockading tankers," said Colonel Abdelnasser
Shalsha, army operations commander in Tobruk. "We cannot confront our
own people."
His men lack the firepower to confront the protesters, he said. "We don't have any heavy guns," he said.
SPLITS AND DIVISIONS
Located closer to Egypt's Cairo than Tripoli, Tobruk has never got much attention from the capital, some 1,200 km away.
Gaddafi
left schools and hospitals dilapidated in the city of 300,000
inhabitants. During his four-decade rule, there was just one weekly
flight to Tobruk from the capital, according to the airport director.
Years
of neglect fuel autonomy fervour among locals who were among the first
to rise up against Gaddafi in 2011. One hotel carries the picture of
King Idris, who created a federal system preceding Gaddafi, which many
locals see as a model for their call for devolving power.
And the local museum carries a portrait of Omar Mukhtar, a freedom fighter against the Italian colonial rulers.
Talk
among the crowds strolling on the central square at night quickly turns
to politics and many curse the government and parliament in Tripoli.
"We
want infrastructure, roads, schools," said Kamal Awad, who works at the
state oil firm. "We support the oil stoppage because there is no
transparency where the exports are going."
For the government and lawmakers trying to mediate the biggest question is often who to talk to.
"We
are not with Ibrahim Jathran," said Abdel-Jalil al-Mazini, another
Al-Abidat tribal leader who still supports the blockade. "We want the
United Nations to supervise oil sales."
Mohammed Younis, a Tobruk
lawmaker in the national assembly, is sceptical that future talks will
even make any headway with so many protest demands.
"They all have different opinions and agendas," he said.
(Editing by Patrick Markey and Anna Willard)
